Personnel Psychology (psych 339) – Written Assignment

In the context of Personnel Psychology, job performance may refer to actions or behaviors that can be measured and that are relevant to the goals of an organization. These actions or behaviors can further be separated into three separate categories; these include task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors and counterproductive work behaviors. Task performance refers to the activities that are a part of the formal job description and contribute to the technical core of the organization. In the case of an intercity bus driver, these activities would include but are not limited to driving specific routes to reach specific destinations according to a time schedule, following traffic regulations, assisting passengers and completing vehicle inspections before departure. In contrast, organizational citizenship behaviors refer to actions or behaviors that are not a critical part of the job description but benefit the organization. Examples of such behaviors may include speaking about the intercity bus company in a positive light outside of the workplace, or helping co-workers with their work. Finally, counterproductive work behaviors may be defined as actions or behaviors that go against the goals of an organization. Examples of these behaviors include destruction of the intercity busses or engaging in unsafe driving practices that put passengers on board at risk.

To measure job performance in this setting, one might focus on evaluating service reliability, by specifically measuring on-time performance. On-time performance refers to the percentage value utilized to indicate whether the intercity bus departed or arrived early, on time, or late. This may be calculated by dividing the number of incidents in which the bus arrived on time at a scheduled destination over the total number of incidents. A large strength of using such criterion is that it allows for greater reliability due to a decreased chance of biases getting in the way, which in turn reduces the amount of error. However, in certain cases such as this, specific terms must have specific definitions in order to acquire an accurate value. For example, without defining what is considered early or late there may be error when calculating on-time performance. For this reason, early will be defined as more than one minute before the scheduled time and late as more than five minutes after the scheduled time based on transit service standards and policies.

One area of job performance that may be measured using a performance appraisal is the degree to which the intercity driver assists passengers. This may be done by utilizing a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale that evaluates the driver based on if and how well they assist passengers on and off the bus when help is required, help with luggage, and answer questions relating to bus schedules and routes. A benefit in utilizing a subjective measure as such is that it provides an opportunity to evaluate measures that cannot be directly observed. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales in particular have the advantage of being precise and clear scales. However, the risk associated with Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales is that they can be time-consuming and expensive.

In order to make decisions regarding the selection system, one may utilize the information acquired based on the criteria to create a composite. This may be done by placing the numerical values for each element of the criteria (on-time performance, on and off bus passenger assistance, luggage assistance, and answering questions) alongside the name of each candidate in a table. Once this is done, it is important to calculate the mean and standard deviation for each element, in order to convert each numerical value into z-scores and provide a consistent and standard unit of measurement throughout the chart. Once the conversion to z-scores has occurred, one should assign weights to the different elements and add up the z-scores for each independent candidate. In this particular case on-time performance may be weighted more heavily than the three elements pertaining to passenger assistance.

Both criteria may need some improvement to achieve better relevance and reliability. In terms of practicality, the criteria may not be the most practical as it may not always be easy to administer. For example, unless one has access to data relating to how often one reached a specific destination on time as well as the total number of trips they have taken; it may be difficult to calculate the on-time percentage. Also, passenger assistance may be difficult to administer, as it tends to be more expensive. However, with the appropriate resources these criteria would be easy to administer. The criteria does appear to be sensitive, as one-time percentage and the degree of passenger assistance would vary from individual to individual, some candidates may driver faster or slower than others, have more patience when dealing with passenger inquiries, and may possess more physical strength in order to assist with getting on and off the bus, as well as luggage. Lastly, in regards to fairness, using the criteria to assess performance reliability does appear to be fair as it would be applied consistently, however, the criteria to assess passenger assistance may not always be applied consistently depending on how the evaluator perceives the candidate’s performance.

The company should recruit applicants by emphasizing the organization’s work environment and organization image.

Three individual differences may include: differences in cognitive abilities, such as problem solving by using knowledge of alternate routes; patience and self-control, especially when interacting with passengers; and physical abilities, such as sitting for extended periods of time.